Not unless the Engineer accepts the use of Section IX. The acceptance of performance qualification to alternate codes or standards is recognized by AWS D1.1 in the qualification clause, but requires approval of the Engineer.
The acceptance criteria of ASME is not as stringent as AWS D1.1.
ASME Section IX has no visual criteria for attributes such as undercut, overlap, face or root reinforcement, porosity etc. As such, the inspector has no basis of evaluating (accepting or rejecting) those types of discontinuities.
The bend criteria of Section IX is no open defects greater than 1/8 inch. AWS goes further in stating the sum of the open discontinuities 1/8 inch or less cannot exceed 3/8 inch.
As stated in an earlier response, AWS D1.1 leaves it to the Owner's representative, i.e., the Engineer, to determine whether qualification to a different standard, i.e., ASME Section IX, is acceptable.
